Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

With all due respect to the Senator, this amendment achieves nothing in a legal sense. It seeks to change a permissive power for the EPA to hold an oral hearing, "shall have", to another permissive power, "may". I maintain the view expressed on Committee Stage that using the word "may" instead of "absolute discretion" makes no material difference.

I also repeat my view about maintaining consistency, which is an even more important point, between the IPPC and the waste codes. The absolute discretion construction in the Bill mirrors exactly the provision in section 42(11) of the Waste Management Act 1996 in respect of a decision on the holding of an oral hearing on a waste licence. I want to maintain that consistency. The legal advice is that the amendment does not make any difference and, therefore, I do not accept it.